


Your favorite spot just next to me

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [17]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hell's Kitchen Cronicles, Kastledevil, M/M, Multi, OT3, Oneshot, Polyamory, Tumblr Prompt, but it is an ot3 story, edourado, karedevil - Freeform, kastle - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 16:56:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7114435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tumblr prompt: #15: "If I see you anywhere near her, you'll have to deal with me."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your favorite spot just next to me

They waited in the shadows, hidden by the lack of light in the warehouse, facing the Hudson River. 

Matt sat on the floor, his legs dangling towards the ground below, two stories down, his mask in his hands. Frank, sitting with his back against a column, nursed his usual cup of coffee. 

“Don’t you get sick of that?” Matt asked, refusing when he was offered a sip. 

“No”, came the grunted answer.

“I’ve lost count of how many of these you have everyday.”

“I’m with you for the most part of everyday, too, you don’t see me complaining.”

Matt chuckled.

“That’s because you love me.”

The plastic lid that came with the coffee cup flew at him and he caught it, throwing it back at the Punisher. 

“I love coffee too.”

“Are you comparing me to a hot beverage? That’s not very nice.”

Frank didn’t answer, looking at the river, instead. 

They were there waiting for an informant. They didn’t know who it was, exactly. The man they were going to “meet” (“surprise” would be a more accurate term. Karen, who had arranged the meeting, had told him he was meeting with a friend of hers, he didn’t know it was going to be Daredevil - plus the Punisher, if the situation called for it) had, according to Karen, an eventful past, dealing in things like bank robbery and cons. They needed information on a dirty cop, this guy seemed like an option. 

When the car approached, Matt turned his head towards the sound, putting his mask back on, making Frank look. 

“He here?”

“Yeah.”

All the easiness of a quiet night, “just a talk to gather info”, vanished from Matt when he recognized the smell. The way he moved, the voice that hummed to whatever song was on the radio. 

He got up, already mad, already ready to hurt him. Frank noticed. 

“What is it?” he said, standing up, too.

“Barrett” he said, getting one of his clubs, attaching it to a beam and jumping down to meet his now target. 

“Red, wai- Fuck.” He heard Frank say, turning around to climb the steps down. 

When he landed, the billy club swirling back to one piece on his hand, he paced towards the crook, the criminal piece of shit he had put behind bars a thousand times, it seemed, but couldn’t grasp the idea of keeping his fucking head down. 

“D? Hey man, shit, Page didn’t tell me it was y-” he started. 

Matt interrupted him by pushing him with force against his own car, grasping the collar of his coat, lifting him from the floor slightly. 

“What are you doing talking to Karen Page?” he asked, trying to keep his voice calm, collected and not betray his feelings, his worry. 

“Whoa, whoa, D, relax, relax, I ain’t doing nothin’ this time!”

“I’m going to ask you one more time: why are you in contact with Karen Page?”

His hands were shaking, now. 

“Wha- we- the- the japanese dudes caught us, r’member? We stayed in touch after that, sometimes she needs some info for her paper, but that’s it! That’s it, I swear!” Barrett said, stuttering, nervous. He knew he was permanently on the bad side of the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, even if not on the top of his list. He knew to tell him the truth. 

Matt heard Frank walking fast towards them from the building and turned the criminal around, slamming him against the car again, making sure the side of his face hit the door with force, holding it there with his hand. 

“You listen very carefully. If I ever see you anywhere near her, you’ll have to deal with me”, he said, low, his threat a serious one, probably the most dangerous promise he had ever made the crook. “Do you understand?”

“I- I don’t look for her, she always come to me!”

“Do you understand me?” he banged his head against the car door again, making the man coil in pain and fear. 

“Ah, yeah, yeah, I do, I won’t, man, I swear!”

When Matt was satisfied, he let go of him, only to turn him around again and land a punch on his face, knocking him unconscious.

When Frank got there, Matt was loading him into the back seat of the car. 

“The fuck was that?”

Matt breathed. 

“You need to drive.”

.:.

“Red.” Frank said when they reached the roof of Matt’s building after delivering Barrett and his stolen car to the police. “Red, listen to me. She probably doesn’t know.”

“She shouldn’t be talking to criminals either way!” he replied, walking ahead of him towards the roof access door that would take them to his apartment. 

“No argument from me there, but you- hey!” Frank caught his arm before he had a chance to open the door. “You need to calm down.”

Taking the time to breathe and listen, to make sure no one was watching them, Matt walked away from Frank, removing his mask while opening the door. 

“Hey”, Karen greeted, voice light, from the couch, where she sat, computer on her legs. “You’re back earlier than I expected.”

“How many times have you met with Barrett?” Matt asked, descending the stairs and trying to keep the urgence and the irritation, the edge, out of his voice, but failing. The easiness got away from her. 

“What?”

“How many times, Karen?” he asked, his voice loud, too harsh. She got up. 

“Not many, why? What’s wrong?”

“Do you know what he does? What he used to do?”

She looked at him when he stood in the living room, some distance still between them. 

“He told me he was in for bank robbery, some credit card stuff-”

“He used to smuggle women into sex trade, Karen!” he shouted. 

Her eyes went wide, mouth open in shock. Frank stood by the stairs, watching, frowning.

“Wha- I-”

“He used to kidnap women and sell them! To be shipped out of the country to God knows where!”

Karen stood there, thinking. When she realized the man had, of course, lied to her, she closed her eyes and breathed out. 

“Matt. I- I didn’t know, I’m-”

“I keep telling you! You cannot keep contact with people like this! Do you know how dangerous this is? Do you know what he could do to you?!”

She sighed, steadying herself. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

He wanted to keep talking, to stress just how easy it would be for Brett to reach his contacts, put them on Karen’s way, how easily she could be caught, again, this time-

Matt stopped himself. Tossing his mask on the couch, he took calculated steps and took her face in his hand, bringing it close to his own, softly. 

“You have to promise me right now, that you’re done with that shit. Talking to criminals.”

Her hand lifted and closed around his wrist, thumb caressing, the other one on his chest. She could feel the anger, the worry, the sheer fear coming out of him in waves. 

“I don’t care if they’re good sources. I don’t care if it’s for the fucking article of the century. You promise me you’ll stop talking to them. For good.”

She breathed out once, because it was a promise she had refused to make many times before. It had never been this real, however. The steps that someone could take to do something truly horrible to her have never been so clear, so easy to take, in her short career as a reporter. 

“Ok.”

“Promise me, Karen”, he demanded again, not so loud, but just as intense.

“I promise.”

He took a second, pressed his fingers on her neck slightly and walked away, towards the bedroom, disappearing inside the bathroom and she jumped, startled, when she heard him slam the door and punch a wall, a tile breaking under his fist. 

Letting her breath out slowly, she closed her eyes, raising her hands and pulling her hair back.

Frank, usually the one to easily lose his temper, to get mad, the one who fought her more often, lacking the ability Matt had to keep a cool head, walked to her, also touching her face, not as intense. 

“We keep telling you, ma’am.”

“I know. I know, I’m sorry,” she said, seeking his comfort, stepping into him, needing his strength, for a moment.

“This thing we do…” he trailed off. 

She just nodded, looking again towards the bedroom. 

“He got scared, tonight. Real scared, for you.”

When she just stood there, thinking, upset, scared herself, he tightened the arm he had around her, lifting her face and pressing a soft, lingering kiss on her mouth. 

“Go”, he said, turning her slightly, walking to the kitchen. 

Karen swallowed and walked to the bedroom, to the en suite bathroom where she could hear the shower running. Knocking softly, she opened the door and found Matt on his underwear, his hands on the sink, supporting part of his weight, head bowed, the Daredevil suit on the floor.

Touching his arm, she coaxed him until he stood tall and hugged him, arms around his neck. 

“I’m sorry”, she said, relieved when he hugged her back. “I won’t do that anymore, I promise. I promise. Ok? I’m sorry.”

Silent, he breathed in her hair and pulled her with him to the shower, and she felt, not for the first time, what the idea of her being taken, hurt, did to him. It was one of the rare times he did not put her comfort and pleasure first, before everything. This time, when he pressed and moved her against him under the warm spray of water, it was for him. Never hurting her, never completely out of control, but more selfish, even if he did succeed in making her legs tremble and her voice break, holding on to him tight, asking him not to stop. Hard enough to imprint on her the idea that she was too precious for him to lose. That, if she goes, so does his sanity. 

Hard enough to imprint on her how much he feared to know what Frank knew. 

.:. 

Later, she was sleeping on his chest on the bed when Frank got out of the shower himself.

“You feeling better?” he asked, moving to get some clothes. 

Matt made a non committing sound, running a hand on her hair, still wet. 

“I thought you would feel more strongly about this”, he said, almost a question. His calm reaction to everything had made Matt wonder. 

“I do. But I know that particular group won’t hurt her.”

A pair of sweatpants on, he lied down beside Matt on the bed and sighed. 

“You killed them, didn’t you?”

Frank looked at the ceiling. Considering lying. Neither Matt nor Karen liked to talk about his methods. But they also didn’t lie to each other. 

“A while back. A little after she started writing, actually.”

Karen was sleeping on top of him, so Matt could not argue much. 

“You disapprove”, Frank assumed. 

Taking a moment to think, Matt ran his fingers on Karen’s back, feeling her rhythmic breathing. 

“In theory, yes.”

After a while, Frank took his hand, lacing their fingers. He didn’t know if he approved of that.

**Author's Note:**

> I live and breath for these three together in love.


End file.
